The Tour has learned of the passing of Christopher Benjamin. Although it’s probably not the case, it does feel as though writing about some of these great characters which shaped our Doctor Who experience is becoming more of a habit than we would like to admit.
As an anglophilic connoisseur of classic British television, Benjamin seemed to be everywhere, as his IMDB credit list suggests. He often portrayed amiable, garrulous or avuncular characters with a comedic edge, and he was certainly very good at it. In classic Who he only appeared in two stories, but in the eyes of the Tour they were both Top Ten stories, Inferno and The Talons of Weng-Chiang.
In Inferno he was Sir Keith Gold, the competent ‘Man from the Ministry’ type. But he was much better remembered for Henry Gordon Jago in The Talons of Weng-Chiang. A part so well remembered it was revived for a series of Big Finish audios which spanned more than a decade. Under the pen of Robert Holmes, it really was an indelible performance and one well worth revisiting from time to time.
But Doctor Who wasn’t done with him yet. In nu-Who he was Colonel Hugh Eddison in Agatha Christie ‘spoof’ The Unicorn and the Wasp. Once again he played the bluff, amiable, though slightly secretive (then again, they all had secrets in that story) head of family in 1926 England.
Let’s face it. The man could not play an unlikeable character. That’s quite a character trait indeed.
